High-speed netting machine



May 27, 1969 Filed July 5, 1967 PRIOR ART MITSUO ICHIKAWA HIGH-SPEED NETTING MACHINE Sheet 7 015 AfmRNEY y 7, 1969 MITSUO ICHIKAWA 3,446,110

HIGH-SPEED NETTING MACHINE Sheet Filed July 5, 1967 INVENTOR BY W May 27, 1969 MITSUO ICHIKAWA 3,446,110

HIGH-SPEED NETTING MACHINE Filed July 3, 1967 Sheet 3 of s INVEN'T OR mrsaa mv/mu/l QM /7. m @K y 7 1969 MITSUO ICHIKAWA 3,446,110

IGH'SPEED NETTING MACHINE Sheet Filed July 3. 1967 INVENTOR HI Kidd low/#4 y 1969 MITSUO ICHIKAWA 3,446,110

HIG SPEED NETTING MACHINE Sheet Filed July 3, 1967 I INVENTOR BY t United States Patent U.S. C]. 87-53 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A shuttle for a high-speed netting machine having the rear side thereof forming a sloped surface to provide for substantially circular movement of a warp drawing hook along the periphery of a bobbin under the control of a roller on a hook-carrying arm in engagement with a grooved guide rail on a cam, and supported on a machine frame at three points with stability.

The present invention generally relates to a netting machine and particularly to improvements in the shuttle, supporting means therefor and warp hook-operating mechanism in conventional netting machines, which enable high-speed operation of the machines to be obtained.

It has been a strong desire in the netting industry to produce a netting machine which is operable at higher speeds. The biggest problem which has hampered the materialization of such a netting machine has existed in the long distance over which the warp yarn has to be drawn and the complicated warp drawing motion, necessitated by the configuration of the shuttle and the method of supporting the same having been employed heretofore. Namely, the conventional shuttle has an inverted triangular shape with its upper side projecting long both forwardly and rearwardly, particularly long rearwardly, and is suspended at both of the projecting ends. Because of such configuration and supporting method of the shuttle, in order to pass a loop of the warp yarn over the shuttle, the warp yarn must have been drawn along the upper side of the shuttle to a point further rearwardly of the rear projecting end of said shuttle, that is to say that the warp yarn drawing distance has been extremely long. In addition, the warp drawing hook has been required to draw the warp yarn horizontally rearwardly to a point beyond the rear projecting end of the shuttle, to be brought to halt once, to be inclined downwardly and then to move forwardly to release the yarn therefrom. Such an extremely complicated movement of the warp drawing hook has been the biggest problem which has prevented high-speed operation of the netting machine.

It is, therefore, the object of the present invention to provide a netting machine capable of operating at high speed, by improving the configuration of and the supporting means for the conventional shuttle, in which the above-mentioned problem has existed.

According to the present invention, there is provided a netting machine in which the rear end portion of a shuttle forms a sloped surface along a bobbin receiving hole so as to enable a warp drawing hook to make a circular motion along the outer periphery of the bobbin, whereby the rearwardly projecting end of the conventional shuttle at which said shuttle is supported is eliminated, and further the shuttle is supported at three points,

i.e. at the forwardly projecting end and at the front and rear portions of the underside of the shuttle.

Such being the arrangement, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to draw the warp yarn a distance as long as that required with the conventional shuttle, the warp yarn drawing distance being shortened to about a half of that required with the conventional shuttle, and in addition the motion of the warp drawing hook behind the shuttle is rendered simple and smooth because the warp drawing hook is only required to make a circular motion. As a result, the operational speed of the netting machine can be increased.

The present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which the present invention is illustrated by Way of example and in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side view of the shuttle and parts associated therewith of a conventional netting machine;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side view of a shuttle and parts associated therewith embodying the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the inventive shuttle and supporting means therefor, with portions removed; and

FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C and 4D are diagrammatic side views illustrating the operation of a warp drawing hook and an operating mechanism for said warp drawing hook, in a netting machine using the inventive shuttle.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 designates a shuttle and 2 designates a front arm formed by projecting the upper portion of the shuttle 1 forwardly, at which said shuttle is supported. Upon comparing FIG. 1 and FIGS. 2 and 3 with each other, it will be seen that, while the conventional shuttle 1 shown in FIG. 1 has its upper side projecting rearwardly as well as forwardly to form a rear arm 3 for supporting said shuttle, the rear portion of the inventive shuttle shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 forms a cliff-like sloped surface 5 extending substantially along the periphery of a bobbin receiving hole 4, so that the shuttle as a whole generally presents the shape of a pistol. At the lower end portion of the sloped surface 5 is formed a shoulder 6 at which the shuttle is supported by a supporting member 7, whereas at the front end of the lower portion of the shuttle is provided a member 8 to prevent lateral displacement of the shuttle, which member is in engagement with an engaging member 9 in such a manner that it is movable pivotally vertically to provide for passage of the warp yarn. The front arm 2 is supported by a supporting member 10 which is the same as the conventional one shown in FIG. 1. In FIGS. 1 and 2, numeral 11 designates a hook for drawing the wrap yarn, 12 designates a warp yarn, 14 designates a bobbin and 15 designates a weft yarn. Numeral 16 designates an upper hook for forming a loop of the warp yarn and 17 designates a net produced by the netting machine. In operating the netting machine, the warp drawing hook 11 moves forward through a loop of warp yarn formed by the upper hook 16, to catch the warp yarn 12 and then moves backward through the loop of warp yarn while drawing the warp yarn to form a loop thereof. Thereafter, the position of the warp drawing hook 11 is shifted as indicated by the broken lines in FIG. 2 with the warp yarn hooked thereon, and finally the loop of warp yarn is released from the hook by the action of a yarn releasing member 13. The loop of warp yarn thus released from the hook passes over the shuttle along both sides thereof and is interlaced with the weft yarn to form a net. The warp drawing hook 11 returns to its original position upon travelling the same path as described above reversely. The warp drawing hook repeats the above-described cycle of operation to carry out the netting. The portions of the netting machine other than the shuttle, supporting members for said shuttle and operating mechanism for the warp drawing hook 11, are the same as those in the conventional netting machine and, therefore, will not be described herein.

When comparing FIGS. 1 and 2, it will be noted that the distance over which the warp yarn is drawn with the inventive shuttle is extremely shorter than and is only about a half of that required with the conventional one, I

and also that, with the inventive shuttle, the warp drawing hook is only required to make a circular motion behind the shuttle, which is simpler by far than the motion of the warp drawing hook in the conventional machine shown in FIG. 1.

Next, the operating mechanism for the warp drawing hook in the netting machine using the inventive shuttle will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A through 4D.

Referring first to FIG. 4A, a shaft 18 which is rotated in a timed relation to the other mechanisms of the netting machine has plate cams 19 and 20 fixedly mounted thereon for rotation in the direction of the arrow. A shaft 22 is rotatably mounted in the frame of the netting machine not shown in parallel relation to said shaft 18, with levers 23 and 24 fixed thereto. These levers 23 and 24 carry at their free ends rollers 25 and 26 respectively which are bearing against the respective plate cams 19 and 20 with no play. A rod 27 is pivotally connected at one end to another free end of the lever 23 and is pivotally connected at the other end to one end of a lever 29 fixedly mounted on a shaft 28 which, like the shaft 22, is rotatably mounted in the machine frame. Thus, it will be appreciated that the rotation of the shaft 18 is transmitted to the shaft 28 through the mechanism described above to cause it to make a rocking motion. The shaft 28 has another lever 30 fixedly mounted thereon which has the other end connected to the lower end of a generally U-shaped arm 31 through a ball bearing. Thus, the rotation of the shaft 18 is further transmitted to the arm 31 through the shaft 28. An upper lateral member of the arm 31 carries a hook angle 32 at its end extremity, to which the warp drawing hook 11 is connected.

Another plate cam 21 is fixedly mounted on the shaft 18 for rotation therewith and this plate cam 21 is in engament with a roller 35 which is carried on the lower end of a lever 34 pivotally mounted on the machine frame by means of a pivot pin 33. The lever 34 is provided with a grooved guide rail 36 in which is received a roller 37 carried on the end extremity of a lower lateral member of the arm 31. Due to the arrangement described, the warp drawing hook 11 connected to the arm 31 by way of the hook angle 32 is moved as the lower end of the arm 31 is rocked about the shaft 28 by the lever 30 connected thereto, as a result of rotation of the plate cams 19 and 20. In this case, the movement of the warp drawing hook 11 is controlled by being guided by the roller 37 at the end extremity of the lower member of the arm 31, which roller is movably received in the grooved guide rail 36 of the lever 34 which is rocked about the pivot pin 33 by the rotating plate cam 21, and makes a horizontal and vertical movement as will be described hereunder. Namely, the hook 11, as the plate cams 19, 20 and 21 are rotated by the shaft 18, first moves forward substantially horizontally above the upper portion of the shuttle 1, as shown in FIG. 4A. Then, upon catching the warp yarn 12 at the terminal end of its forward stroke, the hook 11 moves backward substantially horizontally passing through a loop of the warp yarn formed by the upper hook 16, while drawing a loop of the warp yarn, as shown in FIG. 4B. At the rear end of the shuttle 1, the hook 11 makes a substantially circular motion and moves downwardly under the guidance of the roller 37 rolling in the arcuate portion of the grooved rail 36 on the lever 34 as shown in FIG. 40, whereby the drawn loop of warp yarn is caused to pass along both sides of the shuttle. As the book 11 terminates its downward movement, the loop of warp yarn is released from the hook 11 by the action of the yarn releasing member 13, to pass underside of the shuttle as shown in FIG. 4D and the hook 11 moves upwardly and returns to the original position, shown in FIG. 4A, after travelling along the same path as described above reversely.

According to the present invention, since the arm 31 is arranged at such location as not to interfere with the passage of the net formed, the warp drawing hook 11 may be attached to the hook angle 32 in a plural number at any location as desired as long as the strength of said hook angle permits. It should also be understood that, although the inventive shuttle cannot be supported at both ends of the upper side thereof as can the conventional shuttle due to the fact that the rear end portion of the inventive shuttle forms a cliff-like steep surface without being projected rearwardly, the shuttle is supported at three points, i.e. at both the front and rear ends of the lower portion and the forwardly projecting end of the upper side of the shuttle, so that a lateral displacement of the shuttle can be prevented at the front side of the lower portion thereof even though the rear portion of the shuttle is supported at the lower portion. From the description hereinabove, it will be clearly understood that the shuttle of the present invention may be supported with stability and is highly effective for use as a shuttle for a high-speed netting operation.

What is claimed is:

1. A high-speed netting machine, comprising shuttle means defining an opening therein for receiving a bobbin, said shuttle means including a rear side which is sloped to approximate the configuration of the opening therein and is spaced therefrom by the relatively slight distance, means for supporting said shuttle means in the regions of a forwardly-projecting end of the upper portion thereof and of the front and rear ends of the lower portion thereof, and warp drawing hook operating means, including a hook carrier arm having an upper lateral member carrying a warp drawing hook and a lower lateral member, means connected to the lower end of said hook carrying arm for rocking said lower end about a shaft spaced below said hook carrying arm, and moveable guide means for controlling the movement of the Warp hook-carrying portion of said hook carrying arm by engagement with a roller mounted on said lower lateral member thereof such that said hook-carrying portion executes a reciprocal horizontal and arcuate vertical movement, said movement being permitted by the sloped rear side of said shuttle means.

2. A shuttle and supporting means therefor for a highspeed netting machine, characterized in that the rear s de of the shuttle is sloped along the bobbin receiving hole so as to provide for a circular motion of a warp drawing hook along the outer periphery of the bobbin and said shuttle is supported at three points, i.e. at the forwardly projecting end of the upper portion and the front and rear ends of the lower portion thereof.

3. A warp drawing hook operating mechanism comprising, a hook carrier arm having an upper lateral member carrying a warp drawing hook and a lower lateral member, means connected to the lower end of said hook carrying arm for rocking said lower end about a shaft spaced downwardly from said hook-carrying arm, and movable guide means for controlling the movement of the warp hook-carrying portion of said hook-carrying arm by the engagement with a roller mounted on said lower lateral member of the hook-carrying arm such that said portion makes a horizontal fore-and-aft movement 2,745,309 5/1956 Boynton et a1 87-53 and an arcuate vertlcal movement. FOREIGN PATENTS References Cited 661,006 11/1951 Great Britain. UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 JAMES KEE CHI, Primary Examiner. 992,452 5/ 1911 Saunders 8754 2,219,015 10/1940 Nishiguchi 37-53 US. Cl. X.R. 2,518,140 8/1950 Heggland 8753 87-54 

